The South Korean company will soon announce that it joined the Linux Foundation at the highest level, Platinum. This gives Samsung a seat on the Linux Foundation's board.

Linux forms the basis for Google's Android operating system. But the Linux Foundation has also been building another mobile OS called Tizen.

No one really gives Tizen much notice—and for good reason. The world seems happy enough with iOS and Android. Even Windows Phone can't break that.

But Samsung is a big backer of Tizen. This is a step to try and crank it up.

"Having just recently [in Q1 2012] beat out Nokia to become the world's largest maker of mobile phones, this announcement also makes it clear how Samsung will now try to attack Apple's position with both the Linux-based Android and Tizen platforms," a Linux Foundation spokesperson told Business Insider.

In other words, Samsung wants to have more control so it can turn Tizen into a true alternative to Android, and, more importantly, an alternative to iOS.

Remember the Linux Foundation taps into 800 companies and 8,000 developers, many of them zealots for Linux and the open source way. That's a big base of developers to help build another mobile OS and cool apps for it.

Platinum membership costs about $500,000. Only six other companies have joined the foundation at that level (IBM, Oracle, Intel, Fujitsu and Qualcomm Innovation Center).